Road to Converse Rubber Tracks: And The Winners Are…

April 1, 2014

The hunt is on! Converse Inc. has launched the first ever edition in India of the Road to Converse Rubber Tracks – a nation wide band hunt that will send one lucky band to record for free at the reputed Converse Rubber Track Studio in Brooklyn, New York – one of the best studios in the world. The competition has teamed up with the good folks at NH7, and are touring across the country – to Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkatta, Bangalore and Chennai – on the hunt for the best independent talent in each city.

This past Saturday March 29th, Chennai played host to the final leg of the five regional rounds at the Leather Bar in The Park Chennai. The evening was headlined by local heavyweights Junkyard Groove, and saw five competing bands taking to the stage to prove their worth to the three member jury.

The evening opened with a performance by Duality – an acoustic duo comprising Manoj Sreekumar and Mihir Ranganatan on acoustic guitars and vocals. Up next was young up and comers Chrome.O.Soul who delivered a solid performance characterized by its strong spunky vocals. As the night wore on, the crowd packed out the Leather Bar Terrace and energy levels were on a steady rise. Drift – an ambient/alternative college rock band from Vellore Institute of Technology were next on the line up, making their mark with the audience. Chennai punk rockers Distortion raged the stage immediately after, with the lead vocalist’s hat flying off into oblivion part way through their riff heavy power packed set.

The F16’s

Alt rock outfit The F16’s were the final act of the night, delivering a characteristically understated, musically tight performance that the jury would choose as the winning performance of the night – despite the fact that it was interrupted by the cops half way through the set (which perhaps added a dose of rock ‘n’ roll drama to the night).

The F16’s will now be heading to Mumbai to compete in the Road to Converse Rubber Tracks finals – the winner of which will emerge with the recording opportunity of a lifetime.

IndiEarth is an online B2B platform that connects India’s non-mainstream independent Musicians and Filmmakers to worldwide Media. The platform features a blog, offers value-added services and wider opportunity networks through its partnerships. IndiEarth is an EarthSync Initiative.